InformationWeek | Why We Started A Health IT Innovation Institute

Hectic healthcare environments haven’t allocated time and resources needed to develop new technologies and procedures.

After serving nearly 25 years in health IT, most recently as senior VP and CIO for St. Joseph Health (SJH), a $6 billion integrated Catholic healthcare delivery system, I was given the chance to try something entirely new — to help launch The Innovation Institute, an independent, for-profit, limited liability company structured to cultivate new technologies to transform healthcare delivery.

With the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act, the U.S. Healthcare System faces the most significant regulatory overhaul since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965. The Innovation Institute is trying a new approach to help fix one of the most expensive and complex healthcare systems in the world through the development and implementation of both cost-cutting and cutting-edge technologies.

Why is a new approach needed? It is critical for healthcare systems, clinicians, insurers, patients and industry forces to intently tackle the escalating costs of healthcare while improving the quality and level of care provided. Yet, hectic healthcare environments have, most often, not allocated the time and resources required for developing new and better technologies and procedures.

The Innovation Institute was established in January, designed specifically to “reinvent care” by working with seven strategically selected nonprofit health system member owners, with SJH as the first. The institute is negotiating with other potential member owners. More…